


A New Kind of Normal

by LunaDeSangre



Series: The Way You Fall Asleep [13]
Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:53:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27386743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaDeSangre/pseuds/LunaDeSangre
Summary: They're each other's worlds—it's their only way forward.
Relationships: Kelly Severide/Matthew Casey
Series: The Way You Fall Asleep [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/917790
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45





	A New Kind of Normal

**Author's Note:**

> Dusting up little things languishing on my laptop. Had this floating in do-not-really-like limbo since August 2017. It's suffered through a few rewritings and an universe transplant (originally I only had one universe, and the Nesbitt-kidnapping-gone-very-wrong was part of it, and therefore also _this_ , which means Shay and the kid-of-that-now-other-verse were in it. For two paragraphs, which got moved to a more appropriate fic which is _nowhere_ near finished. Gah.) and I'm _still_ not really happy with it but if I continue to fiddle with it I'll never post it. At least it's got a title now, even if I don't like it much either.
> 
> Anyway! This won't make much sense if you haven't read the previous part. Which is atrocious and confusing and possibly tears-inducing. And the one before that one is _still_ a WIP. But uh, if you _have_ (before, please don't feel like you have to read it now if you haven't), at least it makes for an epilogue? Which has to be better than the way I've left this series so far.

The main problem with Kelly being back at 51 and Matt now working in Arson is the near-impossibility to reconcile their now clashing shifts with what had become a comforting routine: Matt has one night every three days sleeping alone in their bed, and one lonely breakfast, and Kelly has two days where Matt is gone before he wakes up in the morning.

(Matt's grateful to be working again, even if it's Arson and not 51, and his new, hopefully temporary job _is_ interesting, but he can't help but miss Kelly every time they're separated. And no matter how happy for Kelly he is, how intensely thankful to the whole damn universe he is that Kelly's _alive_ and _completely recovered_ , he can't help but worry about him a little either, even though he knows Kelly is good at his job, has a good team, and has Hermann and the rest of 81 to watch his back as well. Matt trusts him—trusts them _all_ , and he knows perfectly well it's a completely irrational thought, but he _can't help it_.)

There's a one hour window between the time Kelly's shift ends and the time that Matt needs to be at work, so sometimes, when Kelly's shift hasn't overrun, they actually manage to spent a little bit of morning time together. (Their record so far is thirty-two minutes, with Kelly running out the second the station's clock said eight, and Matt rushing in, as much as he can these days, barely a few seconds before the office's clock struck nine, hair still wet despite his pristine uniform, because of course they used up every single one of those minutes for a quick good-morning fuck under the shower.)

Most of the time, said little bit of time only lets them have a long kiss or three before Matt is out of the door. Sometimes they only cross path on the stairs, or in front of the house, and then it's a tight half-hug as Kelly turns around and glues himself to Matt, walking with him to his car and stealing tiny kisses on the way without slowing him down.

Sometimes, when Kelly's had a good shift, he drives Matt to work, getting a long clinging kiss before Matt gets out of the car. When he's bone-deep-tired, he just hands him the keys, and Matt takes a few extra seconds to kiss a smile out of him. If he's not back by the time Matt leaves, Matt takes his truck, and then, unless he has absolutely no other choice, rushes back to him during his lunch break.

So far, on days like this, he's only found Kelly sleeping when he gets home. Every time, he inwardly debates whether to wake him up or not, because he knows Kelly needs the sleep if he's still out to the world, but he also knows after bad shifts Kelly needs human contact far more, and eight or nine times out of ten, long shifts, or exhausting ones, are usually bad ones. So every time, he caves, and ends up waking up Kelly by kissing him gently, warm presses to Kelly's lips, his cheeks, forehead (neck and shoulder if he's on his side and has changed into one of those sexy tank-tops of his), butterfly-soft and a tiny bit shaky still to his eyelids.

"Hey," Kelly rasps, opening those (so, _so_ amazing) eyes that Matt loves ( _so much_ ), slow, breathtaking smile lighting up the whole room.

"Hey," Matt whispers, moving to straddle him without a care for what that will do to his uniform.

"Lunch break?" Kelly questions, hands going for Matt's hips, holding him there while he gives Matt a very obvious, very pleased once-over.

"Lunch break," Matt answers against his lips, going for a very needed proper kiss, a bit awed still at seeing him so unguarded and so close and _all his_. (And alive, but Matt tries very hard not to think about _that_.)

"I'm your lunch?" Kelly teases instead of letting himself be kissed, all wicked delight under the endearingly cocky grin.

Matt pulls back a little to sit on Kelly's rapidly-growing hard-on, and pretends to consider it for a second or two, fighting to keep his face straight. (His thoughts are very much _not_.)

Kelly's grin widens, stunningly-blue eyes sparkling with mischief on that handsome face.

"Yeah," Matt says, crumbling. "Yeah, you are."

His break is only one hour long too, and he'll be rushing in again, struggling a tiny bit to look Duffy in the eye and not crack up like a maniac as he pretends his suddenly gravelly voice and obviously sore throat is from yet another cold (if he's not fit for full duty—at least _just for now_ , Kelly keeps optimistically reminding him—he might as well use every damn excuse he's got), instead of being entirely due to how deep and how hard he took the man's all-but-adopted-son's cock in his mouth instead of having a proper lunch.

At five, barring any urgent break-through, he'll pack up and leave, and as always for no-shift days Kelly will be waiting. Sometimes leaning against his car right outside the building's door, ignoring each and every admiring glance of any passerby as he straightens up to smile at Matt, sometimes pacing or snoozing or tinkering on something at home, depending on whether he had time to dress to drive Matt back to work or not.

As usual, the only thing they'll do with the rest of their day, besides whipping up a quick dinner, or a rushed pizza order sometimes, will be _each other_ , making up for the time separated in the exact same manner they'd been making up for the time together and pretending not to be so, before.

(There's still concerned glances, when they do go out, always together even just to Molly's. There's still scars of course, and nightmares, and sometimes even a flinch—sometimes more than one. Matt's probably installed one or two too many security measures on the doors and windows of their new house, and possibly they both check-in with each other too often, those very rare times they're apart outside of work. There's still tears sometimes too, mostly at night, and not just from Matt, but at this point they've both learnt that it's alright, that it's human, that it's a normal reaction to trauma, that neither of them can ever think less of the other for any of it. At this point they both know that there might be those for the rest of their lives, but that _that_ too is okay: because Kelly can pull Matt out of that choking darkness, over and over again, as many times as it takes—because _Matt_ can do the same _for Kelly_ , because they can even stumble out _together_. Because the core of them is the same: Kelly was his world before, just like he was Kelly's, and they're still each other's worlds now. They're alive, the both of them—no one can take them from each other as long as they remain so, not ever again.)

One of these days, Matt hopes, they'll even manage to have a synchronized long weekend somehow—go back to Benny's cabin and not fish at all. Leave the world to civilization and just be together, one joined soul in two bodies, out there in the unpopulated wilderness. Just being alive together, enjoying each other.

In the meantime, though, he's all for taking any second they can get. They're _alive together_. If Nesbitt couldn't break them, or that terrorist with the grenade before that, then he knows clashing shifts won't either: they still get to come home to each other, and really, it's all that matters.


End file.
